Cruise Ship Pier Debate Heats Up in the Cayman Islands

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The debate on whether a pier should be built on Grand Cayman heated up this past week due to fewer cruise ships visiting the island.

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Cruise ships are required to use tenders in Grand Cayman since the island doesn’t have a pier for large ships. The Association of Cruise Tourism’s (ACT) Town Hall Meeting took place at John Cumber Primary School Hall this past week as industry officials issued an urgent appeal for cruise berthing facilities at the port.

Since their is no pier to accommodate cruise ships, cruise passengers must use tenders (water shuttles) to visit the island. Port visits are canceled due to weather, especially during the winter or hurricane season.

Cruise passenger numbers continue to drop compared to 2018. In 2023, the island saw 650,000 fewer guests arrive via a cruise ship compared to five years earlier. Last year saw a decline of 838,000 cruisers compared to 2018.

Part of the drop is due to cruise lines building more mega ships than ever before. Due to the amount of guests that these ships carry, they generally avoid ports where you have use tenders.

A Carnival Corporation executive confirmed that new, larger cruise ships are bypassing the port due to the lack of a pier.

In contrast to a port that’s recently added ship berths, Nassau, Bahamas saw a record 5.6 million cruise passengers in 2024, up 1.2 million over the year before.

The debate about a cruise pier at Grand Cayman is not new and has been going on for over a decade. 10 years ago, a unique cable car concept was launched as an alternative to building a pier. The project never moved forward.

Five years ago, Cruise Fever reported that Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean were going to finance a pier that would allow cruise ships to dock at Grand Cayman.

An artist rendering of the piers can be seen below.

<img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-28363" src="https://theamericannews.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1737407973_470_Cruise-Ship-Pier-Debate-Heats-Up-in-the-Cayman-Islands.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="701" srcset="https://theamericannews.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1737407973_470_Cruise-Ship-Pier-Debate-Heats-Up-in-the-Cayman-Islands.jpg 1400w, https://cruisefever.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/caymanpier-300x150.jpg 300w, https://cruisefever.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/caymanpier-768x385.jpg 768w, https://cruisefever.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/caymanpier-696x348.jpg 696w, https://cruisefever.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/caymanpier-1068x535.jpg 1068w, https://cruisefever.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/caymanpier-839x420.jpg 839w" sizes="(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px"/>Artist rendering of the future pier that is proposed for Grand Cayman. Unfortunately, the $200 million project never got going and all cruise projects were put on hold or canceled months later due to the 2020 epidemic.

Grand Cayman used to be one of the top five most visited cruise ports in the Caribbean, but has dropped down to 18th.

Ellio Solomon, Executive Program Manager of ACT, gave the following statement:

“The numbers are dwindling, Cayman used to be in the top five destinations. Now we are down to 18. There are 3,000 families who depend on cruise tourism … and if we fail to look out and be our brothers’ keeper and let the cruise industry fail, we are going to have major problems.”

The next Town Hall Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 21, 2025.

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